TMW XI: Water Works
by PH2W
Summary: Reminiscing with my brother and an NCIS marathon gave birth to this story.  I wish I could say we were this young when we had our "water" fight... I can't.  We were in our twenties and in our own apartment... In my defense he did wet my freshly done hair!


**Disclaimer: Tragically NCIS is the sole property of the creators, studio, writers, producers, directors, etc. Lucky them….**

**I consider myself lucky to be able to take them out to play for a while.**

**A/N: This story is complete AU and is an installment of the This Means War series. Have fun suspend belief and read it like the fiction it's meant to be… Read, Enjoy, Review….**

**Dedication: This goes out to all the wonderful folks who have reviewed the series and enjoyed what I've taken great pleasure in writing.**

**Reminiscing with my brother and an NCIS marathon gave birth to this story. I wish I could say we were this young when we had our "water" fight... I can't. We were in our twenties and in our own apartment... In my defense he did wet my freshly done hair:-)!**

**(Abby 13/Kate 16/Tony 18)**

Tony stood in front of the sink watching it fill with water a pout gracing his face. As Kate crossed the door to the room with a cleaning bucket in hand from the laundry room her brother called out to her. It was Saturday morning chore day in the Gibbs household. Abby was upstairs having been tasked with room clean up and the low ground, which included running the vacuum. Noemi, their housekeeper, was on her vacation for the summer. Tony joked that the only reason she got off for a month was because their parents had free labor to pull from.

"Kate, KATE!"

Without stopping, "WHAT?" She called back.

"Come here."

"I don't understand. Is it that I _don't_ look busy?" Kate dropped her bucket at her feet in the doorway and put her latex glove covered hands on her hips.

"Switch with me."

"What?"

"Switch with me. I'll do the bathrooms. Come on you know you don't really want to do toilets."

"No, I don't. Guess what I want to do even less? Your chores. NO!"

"Come on Kate." Tony whined as he looked around. It would take him all day.

"Heck no. Your mess, your problem. What you couldn't sucker or bully Abby into doing it for you?" Kate was openly laughing at her older brother now.

"Little booger wouldn't even help."

"Good! It serves you right. Your little late night kitchen raids are always work for someone else. This time you get to experience the joys of the aftermath all by yourself." She stuck her tongue out at him and blew raspberries in his direction. On impulse Tony picked up the water sprayer, aimed in her direction and let the water go full blast.

"Aahhh, ANTHONY! What the frick? You idiot I just got my hair done for tonight jerk off."

"Who gets their hair done before chores?"

"Someone who got the last open appointment at eight in the morning. You are paying for this!" She stormed from the room with her bucket fuming and mumbling cuss words the whole time.

"Whatever Kate. How much could ruined bangs cost? Ten, fifteen bucks! They'll dry Katie. Get over it!"

He was so pissed about the imposing mess in front of him he wanted to scream. It was Abby's running and screaming that ultimately pulled his focus though.

"Seriously, you have got to stop running through here screaming every time you see a bug."

"I didn't see a bug. As a matter of fact _I _didn't see anything. I'm staying down here until mom gets home. I don't want any part of this mess."

"What mess? What are you... KATE!" Tony took off out the kitchen past his folks office and up the stairs two at a time. "Caitlin I swear I'll murder you if you're in my room."

She didn't have much to worry about since she'd only been in his room long enough to get a handful of his baseball cards and a few other things off his desk that were now floating on top of her newly filled water bucket. Pulling it out of the tub as he entered the hall bathroom Kate was facing him with a smug look.

"They'll dry Tony. Get over it!"

He let fly a primal yell then lunged. Kate assumed he was heading for her and jumped up on the sink. The bucket got knocked over as Tony scrambled for his scattered, now extremely deluged, items. Without thought he picked up the bucket and dumped the remaining water on his sister. The bathroom was soaked and it was on. Kate turned on the faucets in both sinks and was tossing handfuls at her approaching brother. Sliding across the counter picking up things to hurl at him while she hollered for him to stop coming for her. Toothpaste, mouthwash, hand soap, liquid of any manner covered them both as she got to the opposite end of the counter to make a run for the door. Soft tackling her to the floor she fish flopped across as he held on to her legs. They rolled, screamed, squealed dragging their mess along the way. When he got her on her back he proceeded to tickle her mercilessly.

Abby didn't want to go upstairs and get involved, but she wasn't about to miss the excitement in it's entirety. Kneeling at the foot of the stairs was how Jenny found her.

"Abby, shouldn't you be upstairs cleaning?" Then she heard voices. "What's going on?"

"Fight, fight!" Abby's focus never left the stairs. Jenny took off past her youngest. She nearly fell backwards down the stairs when her eyes took in the scene. Her piercing whistle brought her children upright panting.

"What in the hell is going on up here?"

It was then that Kate and Tony stopped and fully surveyed the area. Kate began to laugh as she wiped/smeared the toothpaste on the side of his head.

"I guess the bangs are the least of your problems now, huh?" Now they were both in fits of laughter. Aware their mother was standing over them they were still unable to bring themselves under control.

Jen clapped her hands loudly and shouted. "HEY! Both of you stand up right now."

The two miscreants obeyed quickly. The only outward sign of their mirth coming from their heaving chest as they tried to get their breathing back under control.

"You have a minute to explain this. Caitlin?"

"Hey, why does she get to go first?" Gibbs would have been proud of the silencing glare leveled on their son. "Talk."

"Well, um... I... I dropped a bunch of stuff of Tony's in my cleaning water. He went to get them out and knocked over the water. It was a little funny to me, but not so much to him. He was gonna get me, so I was defending myself."

"Anthony, you started this over an accident?"

Kate made to interrupt. She wanted to spin it, so neither of them got into too much trouble, but her brother's mouth was off and running before she got a word out.

"Mom, come on it wasn't an accident. Katie was just pissed because I squirted her with a little water from the hose in the kitchen. A stupid strand of hair got wet and she went all revenge crazy."

"I think crazy might be overstating things a little. I grabbed a bunch of junk off the end of his desk and dropped them in water. Plain water I might add. No real damage."

"My baseball cards Kate! Those could be worth a lot of money."

"Hey dorkis I would never take your good ones in the case. Give me some credit."

Giving it a moment of thought he believed her. There little bouts rarely got truly mean, dangerous or costly. "Fine, those can be replaced, but you're paying for them. I guess I can lock my car manually while the clicker dries out."

"Sorry about that. I guess I didn't think that one through. I'll pay for the cards, but you have to pay for me to get my hair redone... and drive me to the appointment."

"Fine. Sorry I got it wet in the first place. I really didn't know you just had it done. Deal." Tony headed for the stairs to get back down to his kitchen duties.

"Freeze! Stop right there. I'm so glad you two managed to work out _your_ little differences," said Jen, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now tell me how you plan to solve mine. Look at this mess."

"Yeah, that's bad. Good luck Katie. I mean you said you didn't want to switch and the bathroom was your job..."

"I don't think so Anthony. Get back over here and I'll tell you both how it's going to work. You're both going to clean not only this bathroom, but all of the bathrooms in the house. Then you'll finish the kitchen and all of Abby's vacuuming."

Kate was the first to protest, surprisingly. "Why do we have to do her chores?"

"One, because I said so. Two, because I don't want to be here while you two whine about this all afternoon, so I'm taking your sister to lunch and a movie. Finally, if you really have a problem with it I think your dad would love to offer you alternative punishments."

"You misunderstood her. What she meant to say was thank you. Seems more than fair, right Kate?"

"Oh, yeah. We wouldn't want to disturb dad's weekend." She reached out and pulled her brother into a side hug. "We'll get it all done mom. No problems."

"There better_ not_ be anymore problems. If there are your dad's weekend will be more than ruined. It'll be destroyed when I drop you two off to cabin. Then you'll be his and grandpa Jack's problem. Am I clear?"

"Yes ma'am... Crystal." They overlapped their responses.

"Oh, and Tony... Kate do it right, because I will be checking every room and they better be to my standard. No on leaves this house before then. Get started."

They leaned over the railing and watched as their mom shuffled their baby sister out the front door. Turning to each other then toward the bathroom they began to laugh again.

"This is gonna take all day."

"Totally worth it, but I'm so glad dad wasn't here for the water works."

_**The End**_


End file.
